1885 Liberty Nickel

In
1883, the Liberty Nickel was issued for the first time. Perhaps as an
oversight or error in judgment, the word CENTS was omitted. The only
face value indicator was the Roman numeral "V" on the reverse.

Racketeers seized on this opportunity to gold plate the V 5 cent nickel
as pass them off as $5 gold. Soon thereafter, the word CENTS was added
to the design.

Large numbers of the 1883 Liberty Nickel were
set aside because people
thought they would someday be valuable, which explains the humble price
of the 1883 today.

No one was paying any attention in 1885 when only
1.4 million nickels were struck, and of this small mintage, few were
saved. The 1885 Liberty Nickel is rare in all grades, most notably in
Uncirculated condition.

It is one of only two rare dates in the Liberty Nickel series. The
other key being the 1912-S (we're not considering the 1913 Liberty
Nickel... only five of them are known!)

1885 Liberty Nickel (VG-8 Condition)

The blue line tracks the percent change
in value since Year 2000 of the 1885 Liberty Nickel in VG-8 condition,
starting with a baseline score of 100. The red line operates in the
same manner, graphing the progress of the Rare Coin Values Index, which represents the
combined
percent change in value of a group of 87 rare US coins, ranging from
half cents to double eagles. The objective of the Index is to measure
the strength and direction of the
overall rare US coin market. Despite its solid status as a key date
U.S. coin, the 1885 Liberty Nickel rates a bit below average compared
to the Index. Nonetheless, this is a great coin to have, and no one
should be dissuaded from adding one to their collection. The Index is
updated monthly.

Lately, the Rare Coin Values Index is behaving like it thinks its the Dow Jones. That would be an exaggeration of course, because the Index is not climbing at THAT meteoric pace, but it has now closed…